Cyprus has told the UK government it will demand additional security guarantees and EU-backed procedures for the operation of Britain's sovereign military bases on the island.
The future of RAF missions has been raised in discussions between the UK and the island’s leaders following a drone attack in the opening days of the Iran war.
It is understood that President Nikos Christodoulides demanded negotiations for improved British security guarantees during a lengthy phone call with the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the weekend.
While Cyprus is not proposing Britain give up its bases, which provide crucial support for Middle East operations, it has asked for negotiations on security arrangements and more consultation on missions and security risks, The Telegraph reported.
Cyprus’s government has also stated that it has taken legal advice on the 1960 treaty settlement, which would be a “subject of discussion with the British side”. The RAF bases Akrotiri and Dhekelia became 250 square kilometres of UK sovereign territory following negotiations leading to Cyprus’s independence from the UK in 1960.
However, this has now come under examination following Iran’s attacks. “We need to have an open and frank discussion with the British government with regard to the status of the British bases … the status and the future of the British bases in Cyprus,” Mr Christodoulides said last week.
He later told an EU summit that the British bases were “something that are a colonial consequence on the island”. However, the UK's Ministry of Defence has made it clear to The National that the status of the airbases is not open to negotiation.
“The status of the sovereign base areas is not in question,” a spokeswoman said. “They have never been part of the Republic of Cyprus as UK sovereignty was retained over these areas when Cyprus became independent in 1960. We have no plans to change this.” She added that the “long-standing friendship” between the two countries "is strong in the face of Iranian threats”.
The two drone attacks on March 1 and 4 triggered a debate over the island’s safety, with a number of warships steaming to its defence from Greece, France and elsewhere. Britain also reinforced it with more Typhoon and F-35 fighters, and in at least one instance, a drone was shot down by the latter aircraft.
But a Type-45 air defence destroyer only belatedly arrived in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, three weeks after the initial attacks, causing significant embarrassment for Britain’s defence chiefs. Britain is home to 350,000 Cypriots – equivalent to a third of the island’s population – and direct trade and investment is worth £3.4 billion annually.
